With his assistant coaches fanned out across the country recruiting, new Cal football coach Sonny Dykes had a hankering for some live football. So he was in Santa Clara on Wednesday, clad in a Cal football windbreaker and watching a 49ers practice from the sideline.

Dykes has two 49ers connections in wide receivers Michael Crabtree and Quinton Patton. While an assistant at Texas Tech, Dykes recruited Crabtree. Last season, when Dykes was head coach at Louisiana Tech, Patton was his leading receiver.

"It's too bad what happened to Michael," Dykes said of Crabtree, who tore his right Achilles tendon one day earlier and was recovering at Stanford Hospital from reattachment surgery that morning. "I was looking forward to seeing him."

The injury could thrust Patton, a fourth-round choice during last month's draft, into a prominent role.

"He was consistent," Dykes said of Patton after watching practice. "I was pleasantly surprised. Usually when you are learning something new, you are not consistent."

Dykes, however, wasn't there to eyeball individual players. Instead, he took note of the team's drills, the energy level of the players and how they reacted to coaching. Overall, Dykes said, "You can tell (the 49ers) do things right."